Rating: C
Dir: Carlos Caridad-Montero
Star: Diana Peñalver, Josette Vidal, Fabiola Arace, Fabián Moreno
This was originally tables as an entry for 31 More Countries of Horror, but eventually proved to be not needed. It’s a borderline entry at best, though particularly in the wake of The Substance, its credentials are a bit stronger. It covers the topis of self-image and its potential destructiveness, albeit nowhere near as plunging as deeply into the body-horror abyss. The central character is Perla (Peñalver), the mother to daughters Estefania and Carolina, and son Salvador. She’s a former beauty queen, and is obsessed with her daughters following in her footsteps. The childrens’ father is not in the picture – and Salvador might as well not be, given the complete lack of attention he gets.
We begin with an extended prologue when the girls are young, but Carolina proves incapable of winning even her school pageant. Near-tragedy follow, causing Perla to find religion. A decade later though, her competitive spirit is reawakened by a customer to her dressmaking business, with the two sisters (now played by Vidal and Arace) again compelled to compete as their mother’s proxy. The price, both in their relationships and physically, becomes increasingly high as the brutal nature of the ‘Miss Republica’ competition takes its toll. It feels likely the drugs, plastic surgery and brutal criticism – the organizers stand in front of the girls classifying them as ‘tenderloin’ or ‘spam’ – would cut down all except the hardest contestants, before they reach the pageant stage.
When this came out, Venezuela had won more Miss World and Miss Universe titles than any other country (India has now tied them in the former competition). So these events have a higher place in the national psyche than in more “enlightened” countries where they no longer have the pop culture position previously held [1967’s Miss World is still in the top 10 most-watched programs ever in the UK, outside news and sports] There’s no doubt the approach here is critical, with Perla in particular almost villainous in her depiction, single-mindedly manipulating her daughter and ignoring her son. The most disturbing scene has her teaching the pre-teen Carolina how to throw up after eating, in order to lose weight. It’s remarkable the sisters are not utterly broken by this upbringing.
It does all feel rather too obvious, however, and to no great surprise, ends badly for just about everyone, albeit in a fairly contrived fashion. Admittedly, by the end, Perla is finally paying attention to Salvador (Moreno). It’s just not the kind of attention he wants. Peñalver, whom you might recognize as the “experienced” girlfriend of Lionel from Braindead, over twenty years previously, does a good job of depicting a pageant mother. The film suggests that she has an obsessive personality which needs something to latch onto with fervour, whether that is beauty contests or religious belief. But the film needs to put this performance to better use, or at least find something less than obvious to say about its topic.